Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs brokering settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan issued a statement in Paris on Saturday after a meeting of the two ministers.

The Azerbaijani minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, and Armenia's Edward Nalbandyan had held a meeting earlier in the day to seek ways to peacefully settle the two South Caucasus neighbors' bitter conflict that has been unresolved for over two decades.

The Minsk Group co-chairs -- Robert Bradtke of the U.S., Jacques Faure of France and Igor Popov of Russia -- attended the meeting, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.

Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk participated in the meeting as well.

During the talks the parties voiced their concern over the overall situation with the Karabakh conflict and mulled changing the status quo and solutions to the outstanding issues. They expressed their willingness to continue seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The meeting also discussed the co-chairs' visit to the region, which is scheduled for late November.

In turn, the Minsk Group co-chairs stressed to the ministers the importance of defusing tensions between the conflict parties. The mediators proposed their ideas on a working proposal to advance the peace process, says the statement of the co-chairs and the two ministers.

The foreign ministers reiterated their determination to continue working with the co-chairs to achieve a peaceful settlement of the lingering conflict. The ministers and the co-chairs agreed to discuss these ideas during the co-chairs' upcoming visit to the region, the statement said.

In the meantime, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said that adopting basic principles to reach a peace agreement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not mandatory.

"Baku aims at resolving the conflict and it must be done on the basis of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," he told local media Saturday.

"A variety of factors can be utilized to achieve a peace agreement," he added. "It may be [achieved] by any form of consent."

According to Azimov, the most important is the consent and withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territory through a political agreement, while other issues will be resolved gradually.

He noted the importance of a permanent process targeting resolution of the conflict.

"Meetings are held periodically in different formats, even at a higher level, but there is no permanent process.

"The presidents [of Azerbaijan and Armenia] have held 11 meetings over the past three years, but no final result has been reached," he underscored.

Azimov also noted the importance of drafting the so-called "road map".

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory. Peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on a pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven surrounding regions.